In 2002, U.S.
Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, and U.S. Representative Jane Harman, D-CA,
suggested that the United States should have a Homeland Security Information
Sharing Act to assist in sharing with state and local authorities homeland security
information by federal intelligence agencies. The Act would also have the
President direct the coordination of various intelligence agencies. The Act was
referred to the Committee on Intelligence
and to the Committee on the Judiciary on April 25, 2002. It was sent to the
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism,
and Homeland Security on May 6, 2002, and on June 13, 2002, it was reported
with changes by the House Judiciary. Finally, on June 25, 2002, it was passed
by the House.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, other nations
passed similar acts for the sharing of homeland security information by
national intelligence agencies with local authorities and for determining the
criteria as to who should be considered a terrorist risk. The terrorist risk criteria question has stirred
considerable controversy, with people of Arab or Muslim backgrounds in
particular claiming unfair labeling and unfair screening and civil liberties
groups arguing that bills authorizing “watch-list” criteria do not adequately
protect people’s privacy.

As did the United States, after September 11, 2001, the
Canadian parliament enacted extraordinary police and security measures, and the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), headed as of this writing by Jim
Judd, was charged with determining terrorist risk criteria. In March 2005,
Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer claimed that some members of identifiable groups
have had to cope with the negative impact of nondiscreet activities used by
some CSIS officers. She stated the case of a professor who was not in his
office when a CSIS officer telephoned repeatedly, leaving the message that the
agency wanted to speak with him. Though these activities led university
colleagues to suspect that he was terrorist suspect, in the end the CSIS
officer apparently wanted only to have some information about Afghanistan.

In June 2006 terrorist headlines were made when the RCMP and
CSIS rounded up 17 Canadian-bred terrorist suspects. Their targets allegedly
included the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, the CBC Broadcasting Centre, CSIS
offices, an unspecified military installation, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and
the CN Tower in Toronto.